Star Trek: Galaxy Book 1
by Captain Spadaro
Summary: This started out as something I wrote for my freshman english class. Most of the characters are based on real people.
1. Prologue

Star Trek: Galaxy   
Return of the Orion Pirates   
  


Prologue   


[A/N] - This book is set right after the end of the Dominion War.   
**Bold text** - Authors Note   


After the war with the Dominion, the Federation, and Starfleet in particular, faced a great number of challenges. One of the greatest, however, was rebuilding the fleet. This would be no easy task, as at least 50 _Miranda_-class ships were destroyed during the war, and outfitting the 6 _Galaxy_-class ships built just before the war began with the sensors and other scientific equipment that that class of ships normally carry (**A/N - these ships lacked the scientific equipment as they were built from the six spaceframes talked about in the Next Gen technical manual**). However, the Federation knew that a LOT of Starfleet personell went through some very traumatic experiences, so, as a result, psychological counseling time was rather hard to come by. One of the worst cases, though, was that of Michael Spadaro, captain of the _U.S.S. Galaxy_ NCC-70637. 

Mike, who was aboard the _U.S.S. Enterprise_ NCC-1701-D when it was destroyed, never fully recovered from her destruction. You see, he was aboard the _Enterprise_ at the time of the whole "Veridian Incident"(**A/N - That's what I call it**). The _Enterprise_ was heading to Earth for a refit that Starfleet had come up for the entire fleet of _Galaxy_-class ships, thanks to the destruction of the _U.S.S. Odyssey_ the previous year. Mike, who had recently been promoted to Captain, was also heading to Earth to talk to Starfleet Command about possibly commanding the _Enterprise_-D, as Starfleet was planning on bestowing the name _Enterprise_ on a newly constructed, then-nameless _Sovereign_-class ship, and they were planning on having Captain Picard and crew assigned to that ship, while keeping the _Enterprise_-D in service. (**Hey, two _Enterprises_ in service would be better than one...**) As a result, Mike took John Raia, his best friend, with him to Earth after a long tenure of service aboard the _U.S.S. Endeavour_ NCC-71805.(**Mike wanted John as his first officer on his ship**.) However, fate intervened, and the _Enterprise_-D was destroyed. To make things worse, Mike was asked to head the investigation into the ships destruction. The Board of Inquiry eventually found that Commander Riker could have done more than he did, such as remodulate the sheilds after the first two torpedo hits, or used the large amount of torpedos the _Enterprise_ had, instead of firing the phasers ONCE, and finally, he could have ejected the warp core when the breach occured. However, charges were not pressed because Mike felt that Riker may have been under some stress at the time, although Dr. Beverly Crusher could not explain why she did not find the video communications tap placed on Lt. LaForge's visor when she examined him. Lt. Cmdr. Data would later admit that, just before the _Enterprise_ was attacked, he had detected some strange readings in engineering, and believed that those readings were caused by the tap. Sensor logs retreived from the computer cores of the saucer section, confirmed this, so no charges were pressed against any of the senior staff, though to this day, Mike still has the occasional breakdown where he berates himself for not going to the bridge and taking command after the first two torpedo hits. 

Shortly after the investigation ended, Mike was given command of the _U.S.S. Galaxy_. He picked his senior staff, made up mostly of his friends from the academy, some of these friendships dating as far back as his years in junior high. When the Dominion War broke out, Mike and the _Galaxy_ distinguished themselves a number of times in various roles, eventually ending up with the title of 'Most Enemy Ships Destroyed'. Right now, the _Galaxy_ is on a routine partol near the Synton system, looking for any Breen warships, as they were not too happy about getting their butts kicked at the end of the war, along with any renegade Jem'hadar vessels. The patrol route takes them rather close to the Romulan border, and this is where we join the story.... 


	2. Chapter 1

STAR TREK: GALAXY  
Book 1, Part 1

Return of the Orion Pirates

Punctuation key:

" " speech

' ' Mike's thoughts

John's voice echoed throughout my quarters, yelling, "Red alert! All hands to battle stations! Captain Spadaro to the bridge!" I looked at the clock. 0615 hours. My shift on the bridge didn't begin for another 165 minutes. Just before I exited my quarters, I took a quick peek out the windows. The brightness of a yellow sun filled the upper left corner of my field of vision. The speed of the stars also told me that the _Galaxy_ had dropped from warp to impulse, and was still slowing. "This better not be another Breen false alarm, or somebody's gonna get clocked", I muttered as I headed for the turbolift.

The first thing I said when I arrived on the bridge was, "Report."

"We picked up a distress call from Synton observatory, Mike. They said they were under attack," John replied.

Mike Wintercorn added, "We'll be in transporter range in ten seconds."

I asked Lt. Cmdr. Martin, "Any other ships in the system?"

He replied, "No, sir, but I am picking a warp trail that doesn't match anything in our database. The station looks…" His console beeped with a sound that I knew signaled trouble. "Captain, whoever attacked the station apparently didn't want to leave any witnesses."

"What makes you say that," I asked as I discreetly opened a comm link to the transporter room from the captain's chair, knowing what he was going to say.

"Because their life-support system has been either heavily damaged or sabotaged, possibly both, and is going to fail in approximately...45 seconds, sir."

"You get that, transporter room?"

"Loud and clear, Captain. Directly to sickbay?"

"Of course."

I closed the comm link & said, "Stand down from Red Alert." Then, to no one in particular, I said, "Any ideas as to who attacked them?"

John, who had taken his seat to my right, "I think it's a bit early to be asking that question, Mike."

I inwardly smacked myself, realizing that he was right. 'You're getting ahead of yourself again, Mike.'

My thoughts were interrupted by John saying, "Transporter room reports 15 people beamed to sickbay, sir."

"And that's out of a crew of…," I said.

"15, Mike. Whoever they were, they apparently counted on life-support failing to do the dirty work for them."

"Hmm," I replied, then I tried (and failed) to stifle a yawn, as my fatigue started to catch up with me.

"Captain," came the voice of Mr. Surek, "I have completed a short-range scan of the observatory. Life-support has been damaged to an extent that sabotaging it was a simple task. Artificial gravity is still intact. Computer systems are relatively intact, but there appears to have been an unauthorized access. Their sensors have been heavily damaged. Structural integrity is holding at about 60, but it will not stay there for long, sir."

"Understood. Mr. Wintercorn, bring us alongside the station."

"I've already done that, Captain," he said, sounding slightly confused.

John leaned over to me & whispered in my ear, "You want me to take over from here, Mike? You sound really tired."

"That's because I AM tired, Commander. But, I'm relatively awake now," I replied. As if on cue, I yawned again.

John raised his right eyebrow at me, a slight smile on his face.

"I'm FINE," I reiterated.

At this point, I finally looked at the viewscreen & was surprised to see the image of a starfield. "Put the observatory on-screen."

The second the image of the observatory became clear, John said, "Looks like the observatory took quite a beating."

"Mr. Surek, send the data from the scan to Engineering." Then, I opened a comm link to Engineering from the captain's chair and said, "Bridge to engineering."

"Boswell here."

"Scott, have you had a chance to look at the data from the scan of the station?"

"I was just looking it over now, Mike. Looks like they took quite the pounding."

"Well, get a damage control team together. Right now, I just want you to do a preliminary damage assessment and get life-support back online. Keep an eye out for any clues as to the identity of the attackers, as well."

"Aye, sir. Oh, and Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"You sound tired."

I heard John, Mr. Wintercorn, Blake, Clair, Lisa, Tiffany, and Tim snickering semi-quietly. I smacked my forehead with my right hand and ran it down my face as I groaned in annoyance & muttered, "Just…get going.".

"Aye, aye, sir," came the chuckling reply.

I hung my head & stared at the patch of carpet between my feet for about 3 seconds & then looked up: John to my immediate right, Tiffany to my far right, Clair to my immediate left, and Lisa to my far left. All had grins on their faces. I sighed and said, "You guys aren't going to let go of this, are you?" All 4 shook their heads, still grinning.

"…Fine, fine, I'll go lie down in my ready room," I relented as I stood up and headed for my sanctuary/office. I paused at the entrance to my sanctuary and turned around, and was pleasantly surprised to see Clair following me with a gentle, crooked smirk on her face. I cast my eyes over to the command area and saw that John had already taken my chair. I smiled slightly, and then felt Clair push me gently.

"I'm going, I'm going," I muttered, and entered my sanctuary. Once inside, I went to the couch that sometimes served as a bed, sat down, and found that Clair had followed me inside, and was still smirking at me.

"Okay," I started, "My paren-"

"Lie down," she commanded. My eyes widened slightly in confusion, but I complied anyway, because at this point, lying down was a tempting option.

"It's for your own good, Mike," she said. I nodded as I felt the land of Nod calling me already… What she did next was a surprise: she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. I looked at her in surprise, but she just smiled. The last thing I saw before I drifted off was Clair looking down at me, blushing, with a smile on her face.

The first thing I was aware of was someone shaking me and saying, "Time to wake up, Captain."

I raised my head slightly and slowly opened my eyes. I was greeted by the sight of Lisa looking down at me, smiling, with her head cocked to one side. I automatically smiled back. "Have a nice nap?" she asked.

"Yes. I feel much better," I replied as I stood up and stretched my arms. "What time is it," I asked as I walked over to the replicator to get a drink.

"1000 hours," she replied. She must've expected my start because she added, "Don't worry, I fed Speedy for you."

I sighed in relief. Speedy hates not being fed on time. "Thanks. I owe ya one."

"John, Mr. Boswell, and the station commander are waiting outside. You want me to send them in?" she asked.

"Please," I replied as I sat down at my desk.

Lisa nodded and exited. The guys must have been standing just outside the door sensor threshold because the doors didn't close when she exited. Instead, the doors stayed open, and then my first officer, chief engineer, and a man with slightly thinning brown hair, some five o'clock shadow in need of a shave, and looked to be in his thirties or forties, who I assumed was the station commander, entered.

I stood and extended my hand to him. "Captain Michael Spadaro, commanding officer, _U.S.S. Galaxy_."

"Dr. Markus Ryder, chief scientist and commanding officer of the Synton observatory," he replied, returning my gesture.

"I wish the circumstances were less critical," I said as we both sat in our seats. I turned to Scott and said, "Damage assessment, Mr. Scott."

Scott chuckled at the nickname, then his expression became all business. "Pretty bad, Mike. The place was practically torn apart. They fired on it several times before boarding it. Main computer hacked, cargo bay turned inside out, probes stolen, weapons lockers empty, turbolifts knocked out, lighting system heavily damaged, debris strewn everywhere; it was a real mess over there, sir."

"Sounds like it," I said, as I pictured his description in my head. 'Yeah, definitely a mess.' Shaking myself back to reality, I said, "Well, continue."

"When we beamed over, it took us a moment to get our bearings. But, we were able to life-support online again. I then had the team split up so we could assess the damage faster. I was assessing the damage to the computer system when I heard Ensign Kelly yell "Sir! You better take a look at this!" I went over and found him by a structural support beam that had been knocked down. We lifted it and found the body of one of the attackers. It was an Orion."

My eyes bulged at this. "An…Orion?" I said quietly.

Scott nodded grimly and continued. "Not just ANY Orion, Mike. He had…," Scott dug into one of his pants pockets & pulled something out, "…this emblem on his uniform."

Scott placed the object on my desk & John, Dr. Ryder, & I looked at it. John & I recognized it immediately. John's eyes went wide, my mouth dropped open, & Dr. Ryder just looked at it. 'He doesn't recognize it,' I thought. 'Can't say I blame him for that. I doubt anybody _would_ know it after so long.'

The emblem was the symbol of the Orion Pirate cartel.

I blinked once or twice to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. I wasn't. It REALLY was there.

"Dr. Ryder, could you excuse us for a minute?" I said quietly. He nodded, & we both stood. I walked with him to the door. "Just wait right outside," I told him. He nodded again and exited the room. Once the door was closed, I punched in a code to lock them so Scott, John, and I wouldn't be disturbed. A light flashed, indicating the doors were now locked.

I walked over to the window and looked out over the large expanse that was the top of the _Galaxy_'s saucer section for about half a minute. Finally, I turned around & sat back down in my chair. I looked levelly at both John and Scott. "You know what this means, don't you," I said. They both nodded.

"What do you think we should do now," I asked. I let a minute of silence pass while they thought about respective answers. "John, you first."

"We should tell the rest of the senior officers, Mike. No sense keeping them in the dark. Then, we should inform Starfleet Command; in particular, we should inform Admiral O'Reilly."

I nodded, then turned to Scott. "Mr. Scott?"

His answer was the same as John's: inform the senior staff, then contact HQ.

"I was thinking the same thing, guys. First, though, what about the station crew? I don't want send them back to the station in the condition it's in."

"We can put them in the guest quarters on deck 5, Mike," John said.

"Excellent. John, I want you to take Dr. Ryder back to sickbay and brief him & the rest of the station crew on my decision. Tell him I'll brief him on the pirates later. And don't worry about missing the start of the staff meeting. You don't need to be there for the start. Make sure someone shows them where the guest quarters are. Once you've done that, get to the meeting."

John nodded, stood, & exited the ready room to attend to the duty I assigned him.

"Mr. Scott, you're going explain to the senior staff the reason why that cartel seemingly "disappeared" after the Tomed Incident," I said as I stood up & headed for the door.

Scott stood as well, furrowing his brow as he did so, and asked, "Wait. How come I have to give the explanation?"

"Because," I said as I unlocked the ready room door, "the Romulan government contacted you, not me. That, and it's your punishment for triggering the snickering fit on the bridge earlier."

I walked up to the captains chair, hit the intercom button, and said, "Senior officers, report to the observation lounge at once."

Scott & I were the first ones into the lounge, followed by Blake, Mike Wintercorn, Clair, Lisa, Tiffany, Casien, Dr. Doyle, Tim, and Mr. Surek.

After everyone sat down, I went to the control panel on the wall at my end of the lounge, punched a few buttons, and called up the emblem of the "Orion" pirate cartel. 'That's what I'll call them for now', I thought, 'just so I don't confuse myself and everyone else.'

I stood next to the panel & pointed at the screen. "Does anyone recognize this emblem?"

Except for Scott, everyone shook their heads. 'Just as I expected'. "Well, memorize it. Unless Mr. Scott, John, & myself are hallucinating, and I'm pretty sure we're not, this emblem was found on the uniform of the body of one of the stations attackers who was killed during the boarding action."

"Why do we need to memorize it," Mr. Wintercorn asked, sounding a tad confused.

"Because, Mr. Wintercorn," I said, "This is the emblem of the Orion Pirates, and-"

I was cut off as a collective "WHAT!" rang throughout the room.

I couldn't say I didn't expect the reaction, because I did, but still…I had a right to be a _little_ peeved.

I balled my right hand into a fist and brought it down, hard, on the table, which succeeded in both silencing them & sending a sharp wave of pain halfway through my right arm. As soon as flesh met metal, my eyes snapped shut. 'OWWW! I forgot how hard this thing was. Ohh, I'm gonna regret that later. I'm definitely gonna regret that later. Memo to self: NEVER slam fist(s) down on this table AGAIN.'

When I opened my eyes, everyone was looking at me…with smirks on their faces.

I stared back for a few seconds, then shook my head and muttered, "Wipe those smiles off your faces; This is serious."

"Sorry, sir," Scott said.

"Anyway," I began again, "This is the emblem of the Orion Pirates, and the fact that we found it proves they're back in business."

"Mike," Clair said, "I thought that the last time anyone heard from these pirates was the Tomed Incident."

"That's…sort of true, Clair. This cartel hasn't been heard from _since_ the Tomed Incident. The last time the Federation encountered this cartel was a week before the Tomed Incident, when a task force led by the _Enterprise_-A, under my grandfathers command, destroyed a major base of theirs that was located VERY close to a major shipping lane. After the Tomed Incident, that cartel, for all intents and purposes, disappeared."

"Why?"

"I could answer that," I said, "but the only reason I know is because Mr. Scott told me. Just like he will tell you guys now." Having given Scott his cue, I walked back to the head of the table & sat down.

Scott stood up, cleared his throat, and explained, "A few months after the Romulans entered the war with the Dominion, I was contacted by a Romulan senator. He said that he found out that one of my great-grandparents was among the Starfleet officers killed in the Tomed Incident. He said that the Romulans may have made a mistake in blaming the Federation. Romulan Intelligence had long believed that this cartel was mainly responsible for instigating the Tomed Incident, but could never find enough evidence to implicate them. So, they simply issued an ultimatum to the cartel: meddle in our affairs again, and be destroyed. To back this up, they destroyed half of their fleet."

"So, let me get this straight: the pirates instigate the Tomed Incident. The Romulan Empire issues the ultimatum. The pirates promptly 'disappear' from the scene of galactic politics, until now." Tim said.

"Correct."

"So, why did they meddle with the Romulans near the-"

"That was the Orion SYNDICATE, Mr. Elia, a completely different cartel. The pirates the Captain is referring to claimed to be the 'original' Orion Pirate cartel back in the late 23rd century," Surek commented.

"Oh."

"I know how you feel, Tim," I remarked, "It IS confusing. But, in any case, we now know who attacked the station. What we still DON'T know is why."

"Mike," John exclaimed as he entered the room, "I just thought of something. Maybe the pirates were after the probes."

"Most of the probes _were_ gone, Mike," Scott said thoughtfully, fingering his chin. "There were only 3 or 4 left, if that. The probe storage room was…wrecked. We couldn't get in there to count how many were left."

"Why raid a station just for torpedo casings," Lisa asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to just buy some casings on the black-market?"

"Easier? yes. Cheaper? not by a long shot," I replied.

"Yeah," Tim added. "Ten Mark VI casings cost, what? 5,000 bars of gold-pressed latinum?"

"It depends on how greedy the Ferengi selling them is," Tiffany commented. We all had a good laugh at that one.

"Scott, am I correct in assuming that the pirates fired particle weapons when they boarded the station?" I asked.

He nodded. "There were blast patterns _everywhere_, Mike."

"Suppression fire?"

"I think so."

"What killed that Orion," I asked.

"The support beam we found him under apparently landed on him. There were disruptor marks all over it. There also was phaser marks on the floor near the body. I think what happened was that one of the station crewmembers put up a fight against the boarding party. The crewmember was on the floor above him & they were engaged in a firefight. One end looked like it'd been damaged already & didn't need much prodding to fail, but the other end probably needed one, maybe two good hits with the disruptor before it gave out. The fact that the station was fired on several times, possibly even while the boarding action was being executed, probably helped as well. The disruptors were most likely stolen."

"What kind were they?"

"Type 3."

Clair said, "That narrows it down to three possible candidates: Klingons, Romulans, or Breen."

"Are pirates really desperate enough to steal from Klingons?" Tim pondered aloud. Everybody mulled this scenario over…for about 3 seconds. We all shook our heads & said, "Nah."

Scott started to say something, but cut himself off as the intercom sounded. "Bridge to captain."

I tapped my communicator. "Spadaro here."

"Captain, we've just detected another ship entering the system, traveling at war- correction, they were at warp 2, but they just dropped to full impulse. ETA to our position at that speed, 5 to 10 minutes."

"Is it one of ours?" I asked.

"No, sir. Its…Romulan."

John started to get up and was about to say Red Alert when I put my hand on his shoulder. He turned around & looked at me, slightly bewildered. I shook my head. He looked like he was going to protest, but then thought better of it.

"They're not cloaked, I take it?"

"No sir."

"Have they raised shields or armed weapons?"

"Negative on both counts, sir." John raised an eyebrow at this.

I thought for a moment before saying, "Sit tight. We're almost done in here."

After I closed the comm link, John asked, "Mike, why _not_ go to Red Alert?"

"Because," I replied, "I don't want to take any provocative action if I don't have to."

At this point, Casien finally chose to add to the discussion. "Mike," she said, "I don't think the disruptors were stolen from the Breen, either."

"What makes you say that," I remarked as I turned to face her.

"I don't know," she replied. "I just don't think the Breen would let a bunch of pirates relieve them of some of their disruptors."

"I'm going to agree with Casien on this one, Mike," Tim added.

"So that just leaves the Romulans," Clair commented.

"True, but since we haven't run an analysis of the blast patterns, this is all just speculation," I said, standing up & tapping my communicator. "And for right now, that is where we'll have to leave it. Spadaro to bridge."

"Yes, Captain?" came the reply.

"How long until the Romulan vessel enters visual range?"

"About a minute, sir."

"Good. We'll be right out," I said. Turning back to my staff, I continued, "Alright, people, we'll continue this discussion later. Dismissed."

The first words out of my mouth when we returned to the bridge were, "Yellow Alert."

"Captain," the relief tactical officer said, "we've identified the Romulan ship as a _D'Deridex_-class warbird, but her ID transponder is either not on or not working."

"If they've turned it off," Mr. Wintercorn commented, "then they're violating interstellar law."

"They've entered visual range, sir," Blake said.

"On screen," I ordered.

The Warbird was too small to be seen clearly. 'Must remember to talk to Blake about that'. "Magnify," I said.

As soon as the image became clear, my mouth dropped open.

_To Be Continued..._


End file.
